Repeat felon from Staten Island admits raping homeless woman

A convicted car thief pleaded guilty yesterday to raping a 62-year-old homeless woman who had been sleeping on the boardwalk in Staten Island's South Beach section.

Under the agreement, Jason Gonzalez, 28, of Robin Road in South Beach, faces 12 years in prison when he returns to state Supreme Court, St. George, on April 10 for sentencing as a persistent felon in front of Justice Stephen J. Rooney. Gonzalez had seven previous convictions.

Gonzalez, who faced a maximum 25 years in prison had he been convicted of first-degree rape, must also register as a sex offender.

The judge could also set the sentence to run consecutive with nearly two years parole time he owes stemming from a 2005 conviction for stealing a car.

After pleading guilty to criminal possession of stolen property in July 2005 and spending one year behind bars on a one-to-three years sentence, Gonzalez was out on parole for six days on July 17, 2006 when he spotted a 62-year-old homeless woman sleeping on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk.

Police said Gonzalez struck up a diversionary conversation. He then grabbed her, choked her and threw her over a railing before dragging her under the boardwalk and raping her.

A passerby found the victim lying helpless under the boardwalk with a broken pelvis and a broken femur about two hours after the attack.

The homeless woman gave police details of the attack at the hospital, where a rape kit examination was performed.

"He thought he could get away with this because she was homeless, and he figured nobody would find out," a source close to the case said last year.

Gonzalez figured wrong.

A few months later, detectives cross-referenced the DNA from the rape with a database of convicted felons, and got a hit.

The career criminal was easy to find.

Gonzalez had since been convicted of stealing another car and was serving two to four years at the upstate Franklin Correction Facility when detectives arrested him in November last year and charged him with rape in the attack on the homeless woman.

A maximum three years remain on Gonzalez's current sentence.

In addition to two years owed in probation time and the 12 years he will receive when he is sentenced next month for rape, Gonzalez likely could spend the next 17 years in prison should the judge set consecutive terms.